Why a horror MMO won't work.

[Ruse]

I don't usually care for MMORPG.com's stuff, but dangit, this made me laugh heartily.

The intro:

With the new release of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and over 216 thousand MMORPG titles in development getting ready to go straight to free-to-play everyone is starting to look around the corner in anticipation of the next new game that promises to break the cycle of clonedom that now plagues mankind.

In hopes of a new type of game play experience, or fresh concept in gaming, there has been a long standing cry from the community that asks:

“Where is the horror MMORPG we’ve been promised?”
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Imagine, fighting vampires, battling werewolves or surviving the zombie apocalypse! Logging in and becoming the next great slayer of demons, or maybe even the next great demon itself! Wouldn’t it be awesome? Wouldn’t a horror based video game that had thousands of players adding to the story be amazing?

No. No it wouldn’t.

And I’ve got several reasons as to why. Namely:

You Jerks Will Ruin It

[Versoffen]

Hey, I want a link, I can't find the rest of the thing.


D'oh, nevermind found it.

[Ruse]

Heh, the link was a little hard to see. I underlined it so nobody else has that problem

[ComplexNuber]

Hah, nice. There is one "horror" mmo: http://www.playrequiem.com/ . It's not scary, but just very very dark themed and comes with a lot of gore. It was fun for the first several levels but I don't really recommend it, the grind is way too much.

Edit:

Vampires have become brooding, emotional d-bags with poofy hair and sparkly skin who'd seemingly rather suck a few things besides blood.

Lmao. Anything that insults Twilight is something I like.

[JohnnyV]

Not sure The Secret World will be classified as a horror, but the trailers sure have been off-putting.

[Ruse]

Not sure The Secret World will be classified as a horror, but the trailers sure have been off-putting.

I love the idea behind this. Using outside Web sites that the devs have created to solve puzzles and advance in dungeons (get, for instance, a shipping manifest to figure out which crate to open etc.) but this would be SO SO EASILY ruined by playing with powergamers. That's a game that I'd only load into with a bunch of RL friends or select online ones that I knew were of the same spirit, so it wouldn't be "omg, we must figure this out!" and then someone pipes up with "Wiki says it's blah blah blah" 15 seconds later.

[Mike Fang]

There's No End Game Content

Okay, this has absolutely nothing to do with horror MMORPGs, their possible success, or the topic listed in this article. I'm just throwing it out there for all of you “hard core gamers” who ignore quest dialogue, storylines and painstakingly crafted content in a rush to be the first person on your server to reach level cap three days after release.

You play around the clock for 72 hours straight, often switching out with other dumbasses who have helped you plan your strategy just so that you can be the very first person to complain about how easy the MMO is, or how the developers put no thought into "end game play". Then you form your little b*tch-and-moan support groups on the forums so that others of your ilk can pretend to be bored or disappointed in a game the rest of us are still downloading because it contains like 900 gigs of cut scene footage and they messed up our early access.

I mentioned this for YOU. Because we hate you.

We hate you so very much.

YES! YES! OH GOD YES!

Ahem, sorry. But oh how I agree with this. THIS is why I quit WoW, in fact. I enjoyed the game for all its flaws. I liked the storyline, the setting, and tons of the elements that went into the game.

But I hated...OOHHHH how I HAAAAAATED the pacing of the plot progression. And it was all thanks to Blizzard deciding to cater to the non-stop, burn-through-the-game-in-a-week-flat fanatics who didn't have the slightest appreciation for the huge creation they had to explore. Nope, they just grinded the whole thing, ignored all the story, all the plot, all the characters, and then whined like an ambulance with rusty door hinges and squeaky brake pads about how there was nothing left for them to do in the game. And so what happens? Blizzard, fearing for the popularity of its franchise, releases content just for the jack asses to grind through THAT and whine some more. Meanwhile, the players like myself are left feeling like we're falling behind and not a part of the story. That killed the game for me.

Heh, sorry to go off on a tangent, but that's a real sore spot for me.

[Tigris Cattus]

People like that remind me of those who only look at the images in a book haha

Everything that's involved in any game's story is art, from writing, to voice acting, to actual pictural art, It's such a waste to overlook it. Completely agreeing with you.

[iDwarf]

Horror mmo's are an awful idea. I also agree with Mike's quote. I quit WoW because the pressure to get the best gear, best talent spec, and best rotation was too much. I want to play a game my way not follow what everyone else is doing to get into "end game" content.

We've taken away all of their mystery and darkness and replaced it with feelings, love, and the rest of the crap that guys pretend to be aware of just so we can get to second base. They're now ruined forever, and any MMORPG based around them is going to be so chock full of Bellas and Cullens that the collector's edition is going to include a box of tampons and some glitter.

Werewolves are no longer the poor cursed souls who are destined to become murderous beasts who kill for the sheer pleasure of it whenever the moon is high. Instead, they stand around with no shirts looking remarkably hairless for dudes that turn into fur covered man-beasts and lament their curse to anyone who will stop paying attention to the vampires long enough to listen.

They're now noble protectors, honor bound guardians nature, and judging from their appearance, occasionally backup dancers for Lady Gaga and Shakira whenever they're in town. It's hard to strike fear into the hearts of man when you're doing a step-turn-step-kick in fuzzy pink legwarmers.

nuff said.

[Erik]

So funny, and so true!

About the first point made in the essay: YES! All the weird names people would use that don't fit into the atmosphere. You know, it isn't hard to find an unused name fitting for an MMO setting - not if you include LAST NAMES. For example, "Erik" will probably be taken, but "Erik Maradin" won't be. You don't have to make it "Erik123WTFBBQ" just because you ran out of imagination after "Erik".

Also, agree fully with Mike Fang's post above.

Also, I hate Twilight just as much as all people with a three-digit IQ, or at least an IQ higher than your shoesize. Or at least, something more than sparkling glitter in your mind. I used to roleplay Vampire: the Masquerade, and I read the novels, including the thirteen-novel-long series about the Sabbat invasion of the Camarilla cities on the U.S. East Coast. And while I didn't play it, the sister game Werewolf: the Apocalypse also looked fantastic, as the dying werewolf tribes fought the Wyrm and the vampire clans alike. And Mage: the Ascension was full of wonder, and a fantastic story, with the nine Tradition Houses forced to unite against the Technocracy.

My God, it was beautiful.

Fast forward a decade and you got Twilight. Poor kids growing up today.

That's why I can't get into any vampire material being churned out these days. It's just too painful to watch.